Archive for SKIpgo – Page 2

May 19, 2016 by SKIC | No Comments

Here’s What’s Happening At Our Zimbabwe Sites

In our last blog, we updated you on the #SKIC women of Chile (who are thriving in our SKImfi and SKILLS programs!) Now, our founder, Shyam, has been visiting our sites in Zimbabwe, and we have more exciting updates about our beneficiaries on the other side of the world.

SKIMFI women cooking lunch from food produced locally using microfinance loans.

Thanks to our SKImfi manager, Beatrice, the program is growing steadily. She’s done a fantastic job in choosing committed women who will receive the greatest impact from microfinance loans. Shyam spent a day in a rural village called Gombakomba, where he met with the local chief. Shyam explained our long-term development goals, and the chief showed enthusiasm about how morale has improved for his community.

Shyam discusses using SKIMFI beneficiary profits to rebuild the village’s water delivery system with locals.

The beneficiaries in Zimbabwe use their loans to buy livestock and sell the poultry and eggs, as well as longer-term investments in goats and pigs. Others are involved in classical trading such as vegetables, clothing, and small goods. Beatrice runs monthly workshops to train the women in business skills such as bookkeeping and planning.

Two beneficiaries with our manager Beatrice in Gombakomba

The SKIPGO scholarship program is making a big difference in our scholars’ lives. Since the girls are so young, they are absorbing very quickly at the Early Learnings School in Mutare. Since Shyam’s visit last year, their understanding of English has improved and they look healthier due to the eating habits encouraged by the school. Their demeanor was outstanding.

The 2016 SKIPGO scholars.

One of our new scholars, Tinawimba, came from a difficult background and a challenging part of town. She was very disruptive and had issues handling her emotions. Now, she is working well with others and is clearly a natural leader. Girls like her get the most out of early-stage education and we’re excited to see how she does over the next few years.

Portrait of SKIC founder drawn (and signed!) by one of SKIPGO’s budding artists.

We’re thrilled with the progress that our Zimbabwe sites are showing, and can’t wait to see our SKImfi and SKIPGO programs keep developing.

Help us grow.

Categories : SKICharities, SKImfi, SKIpgo

February 12, 2015 by SKIC | No Comments

A Conversation with Shyam: 2014 | The Year in Review

As we begin an exciting new year, SKIC founder Shyam K. Iyer takes a moment to reflect upon 2014.

The organization saw a lot of growth this past year – with two programs operating fully in both Chile and Zimbabwe, SKIC’s operating sites. This past year we introduced a new program SKILLS, the SKI Local Life Survey, which provides resources and a platform for local artists to showcase their work. In tandem with SKImfi (SKI Micro-finance Institute), these programs helped to illuminate the creative talent that exists in the indigenous communities of Lebu.

Despite relatively depressed economies in Mutare and Lebu, SKIC stands by its mission to empower women and girls who are economically excluded. Shyam believes that it is important to provide resources, even though they may be limited. Rather than over-extending itself and seeking new participants, the organization remains focused and effective by funneling energy and resources into its current beneficiaries. In tightening up SKIC’s management and scope, it is able to provide really solid support.

Even as a small-scale organization, SKIC is continually looking to grow – especially as the demand for resources continues to grow.

Listen in on Shyam’s podcast to hear about 2014, and see what’s on the horizon in the new year!

Categories : Podcast, SKICharities, SKILLS, SKImfi, SKIpgo

April 8, 2014 by SKIC | No Comments

Why Early-Stage Scholarships? (Part 2)

Early-stage scholarships offer tremendous benefits, not only for recipients, but also for their communities. In Part One of this series, we explored the direct benefits for early education scholarship recipients, including reduced criminal activity, fewer teenage pregnancies, and better employment rates. These outcomes create a more sustainable and healthy community environment. By investing in youth, SKIpgo is investing in everyone.

2013 SKIpgo scholars

“The young ladies of SKIpgo will grow to become the leaders of their communities, to be civic-minded women, to prioritize education,” Shyam says. “Our investment in them is also an investment in the long-term future of their community.”

Aside from social improvements, investments in early-stage education produce immense fiscal returns for the community. In James J. Heckman’s seminal paper on human capital and early childhood education, he found that the cost-benefit ratio for the Perry Pre-school program was significant: through age 27 for each participant, the program returned approximately $6 for every dollar spent. When the returns are projected for the remainder of the participants’ lives, the return on each dollar increases to almost $9. Some scholars argue that this is actually a low estimate, as it only incorporates the costs saved by the government, including welfare and incarceration costs. It does not incorporate the costs saved by society or by individual families.

At SKI Charities, we believe that everyone should have a fair chance at a successful future, regardless of the a family’s economic background or status. In a recent prominent study by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, researchers determined that high-quality childcare diminishes the effect of income on a child’s success. High quality early childhood education, like what our SKIpgo scholars receive, can also help people overcome the immense poverty that, often, their families have endured for generations.

By investing in youth from these communities, SKIpgo is shaping tomorrow’s leaders. With a quality education, these girls will grow to promote community-mindedness and civic engagement. They will be devoted to building safe, healthy families, and to building a future for the next generation. In so doing, their personal investment in community will far exceed SKI Charities’ initial investment.

Read Part 1 and Part 3.

Categories : Company Organization, SKICharities, SKIpgo

March 26, 2014 by SKIC | No Comments

Why Early-Stage Scholarships? (Part 1)

Shyam is often asked why SKIpgo focuses on early childhood education instead of adolescent or college education. SKIpgo focuses on making the largest impact by investing its resources in opportunities that will have the most long-term results possible. By offering early-stage scholarships for girls ages three to five years old, SKIpgo ensures that this investment is lasting and ultimately ripples through the surrounding community.

“We’ve been approached quite a number of times by community members who say, ‘I know a girl, or a young woman, who needs some money to go to school or university.’ And unfortunately we have to say ‘no,’” Shyam says. “We believe that early-stage learning is the most important because it’s where we can make a lasting impact on a girl’s life—for the rest of her life.”

SKIpgo’s belief in the power of early childhood education is backed up by extensive research, which demonstrates that investing in this educational stage is an investment in the future of not only a child, but also a community. In this first segment of “Why Early-Stage Scholarships,” we explore children’s personal benefits of education at this level.

2014 SKIpgo Scholars

In 1991, The Carnegie Foundation’s survey of kindergarten teachers found that 65 percent of entering students were deemed ready to learn. While this is an assessment of American students, many of the findings are especially applicable to regions where SKIpgo operates. Teachers in the survey listed the most important determinants of readiness to learn as: high levels of physical health, nourishment and rest; the ability to verbally communicate needs, wants and thoughts; curiosity for new activities; the ability to take turns; and the ability to sit still and pay attention. Early childhood education fosters these abilities and hones these skills, so students can be more effective learners when they begin primary education.

The abilities that a child sharpens when she is young will persist throughout development and contribute to advanced learning. Evidence from the Perry Preschool Program, a premiere 1988 study that explored the impact of early childhood education, showed that girls who participated in early childhood education showed greater school achievement later on. Moreover, a similar study in New Zealand in 2004 by Cathy Wylie showed that quality early education continued to positively contribute to steadily improving math and literacy abilities at 12 years of age.

Additional studies of early intervention programs have shown increases in test scores and high school graduation rates, and has reduced grade retention, among other academic benefits. However, it is generally agreed upon in the academic community that the greatest impact of early education programs lies in socialization, not in I.Q. These skills will help scholarship recipients navigate their future schooling, their first job, and beyond.

According to Lee et al in a 1990 paper about the effects of Head Start in the US, developing skills such as self-control—as manifested by some of the aforementioned determinants of readiness—may be equally as important to future success in life as other cognitive skills. In a 2006 article in Science, James J. Heckman, a leader in the field of assessing early childhood education, asserted that, while cognitive skills are important, non-cognitive skills such as social skills, motivation, and determination are equally important for future success. SKIpgo scholarship recipients get a head start on life’s ladder by fostering these skills early.

Moreover, children enrolled in early childhood education programs earn higher wages and have lower rates of deviant behavior as adults. Other studies, including those by Schweinhart, Barnes and Weikhart in 1993 and Lynch in 2005, have shown that participants in early childhood education programs have higher employment rates, less drug use, and fewer teenage pregnancies.

“The schools that our SKIpgo girls attend do not only teach them English or history or math. They learn to be strong, independent women,” Shyam says.

By investing in these girls’ lives when they are young, SKIpgo lays a strong foundation for a promising future.

Read Part 2 and Part 3.

Categories : SKICharities, SKIpgo

February 2, 2014 by SKIC | No Comments

A Conversation with Shyam: State of the Foundation

Where is SKIC? (Spot the Sticker!)
Listen in to hear where SKIC is at: what we did in 2013, and where we’re headed for 2014

2014 marks the beginning of SKI Charities’ fourth year of activity. In this podcast, the charity’s founder, Shyam K. Iyer, reflects upon the past year and articulates his goals for the coming year.

Listen in to hear our Re-Cap of 2013 and Preview of 2014!

Categories : Company Organization, Podcast, SKICharities, SKImfi, SKIpgo Tags : 2013 Re-Cap, 2014 Preview, Podcast

January 2, 2014 by SKIC | No Comments

A Word with our SKIpgo Zimbabwe Program Manager

Elizabeth, our program manager for SKIpgo-Zimbabwe, discusses her work with SKI Charities and her passion for child development.

In your own words, what is your role in SKI charities?

I work for the SKIpgo Zimbabwe Trust, one of the projects run by SKI charities in Mutare, Zimbabwe. I recruit candidates who are eligible for the scholarships we offer. In the process, I conduct interviews at our office for the eligible candidates. I also do home visits to really get to know our candidates, where they are coming from and how they live with their families. I monitor our recruits’ academic progress and also how well they abide by the rules of SKIpgo Zimbabwe Trust.

How have you seen microfinance improve women’s lives?

Microfinance has tremendously empowered women who were before looked down upon and were always dependent on their husbands or others. In Zimbabwe, large swaths of men are no longer able to work because most industries have shut down lots of jobs. Microfinance has enabled women to start their own businesses, to take care of their families.

What path brought you to this work?

It is so exciting that people really want to help the girl child. I was so willing to work in this project because I have seen women suffer a lot, and this charity reaches the children who are involved in that suffering. I have always had the heart and desire to help and protect women and girls because I believe that strong, educated women will make the world a better place.

What about your job inspires and motivates you?

I am inspired by so many people and things. SKI Charities’ founder Shyam is male and has a heart that bleeds to help empower women. I am touched by such events. As a woman, I feel I have an obligation to help other women accept and support each other to achieve our goals. Also, my mother has worked so hard to get where she is now. In her small nursery, she has produced doctors, nurses and teachers, which motivates me as well.

Through your work with SKI Charities, is there any one story, event or person that sticks in your mind as meaningful to you?

I have worked with so many families through SKI Charities, but one family particularly touched my heart. One of our four-year-old scholarship beneficiaries lives with her mother and grandmother in a one-room house that they divide into two rooms with a curtain. One day when I went there for a visit, the grandmother was in tears of joy and so thankful that her grandchild had improved so much academically, socially and behaviorally. SKI Charities truly gives hope to the hopeless.

Categories : SKICharities, SKIpgo Tags : child development, early-stage scholarships, education, empower women, microfinance, SKI Charities, Zimbabwe

November 21, 2013 by SKIC | No Comments

Less is More: The Benefits of Microfinance

SKImfi recipient, Precious Saunyama

For SKI Charities, keeping things at a micro level is essential to the organization’s success. Charity founder, Shyam K. Iyer asserts, “When you’re doing microfinance at such a local level, it’s not just about these women creating their own wealth and creating their own businesses. What about the spillover effects?”

Shyam notes that SKImfi beneficiaries often use their profits to pay their children’s school fees. This helps to invigorate the social and educational system, and provides encouragement for schools to run better. Beneficiaries may also employ some of their friends or sisters, which further stimulates community growth and provides jobs for people beyond those who participate in SKIC. Further, beneficiaries buy from other suppliers, who, in a sense, are part of the SKIC program by association. By giving a handful of women the tools that they need to create their own businesses and succeed financially, they subsequently stimulate the whole community. The spillover effect starts out micro, but eventually has a much broader reach.

Keeping the organization specific and directed brings more attention and support to our participants.

“Our women are micro-entrepreneurs. They run small businesses, usually informal ones, so it makes much more sense for us to be consistent with their micro-activities. And broadly speaking, the idea of micro does connote community-mindedness,” Shyam says. “Nothing too unwieldy or dispersed. ‘Micro’ is focused on a particular community and economy. We are a community-minded organization, and that means focusing on these specific areas in a micro sense to build up their own ideas of community and responsibility.”

When asked if he would like for SKI Charities to be more large scale in the future, Shyam adds that he would love to grow as long as the focus on community remains. He hopes that every SKIC participant feels included and supported, and is working on maintaining their sense of responsibility and self-respect. “I want to make sure that we never dilute our support of them. I would rather see one woman really excel than five women not reach the same level of success and self-sufficiency,” he says.

Ultimately, for SKIC it’s quality first and quantity second. For both programs, SKImfi (SKI Microfinance Institute) and SKIpgo (SKI Program for Girls’ Opportunity), Shyam emphasizes getting to know the beneficiaries and helping them reach – and exceed – their potential and goals.

Categories : Company Organization, SKICharities, SKImfi, SKIpgo Tags : community-minded, microfinance, SKI Charities, small-scale

September 27, 2013 by SKIC | 1 Comment

Why Focus on Women?

SKI Charities founder Shyam has been asked why it is that the charity focuses exclusively on women. When he visits town halls and communities to tell them about SKIC, plenty of men attend. Some of them jokingly (and others more aggressively) ask him, “Why are we not included? Why do you just focus on women? Is this reverse sexism or reverse discrimination?”

Shyam reasons that it is an effort to level the playing field. He tells these men, “We’ve had our opportunity and continue to receive so many chances. You see what our women do, what our mothers, sisters, and daughters do for us. They add to the community. They will add even more to your own life!”

Though SKIC would ultimately love to reach out to beneficiaries regardless of gender, some of the choice to work exclusively with females comes from having to carefully manage its resources. “We want to optimise our reach, in as many socially constructive areas as possible,” Shyam says.

“By no means am I saying that boys don’t deserve the same scholarships or men the same capital. But the communities we work in are very traditional, impoverished communities. Our observation has been that more men control the household finances and more boys than girls are given the opportunity to get an education and are encouraged to strive for something more. So when we think about our broader goal, it’s not about favoring females or choosing sides through microfinance or scholarships, but simply leveling the playing field.”

Shyam also points out that microfinance, in its most successful incarnation, was directed at females. Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Prize Winner from Bangladesh, pioneered microfinance on a large scale and chose to focus on women. “He did this for a reason,” Shyam says.

“When you empower women, you truly support the entire community, not just an individual. When a woman is empowered and starts to earn wealth, what will she do? She will grow her business, which will then hire more people, which will in turn support more suppliers. When she makes money, she will put her kids back in school, which of course increases the overall education of a community. And she will start to tithe more consistently to her church, which will further strengthen the community. As she becomes more prominent to society, she becomes respected as a leader and a role model for younger people. It’s all textbook spillover effects. The point I’m trying to make is, if you want finance go further, there are studies and initiatives and our own experience demonstrating that the best way is through women.”

Though the men in Lebu and Mutare are an important part of SKIC – “their support for their wives and daughters is integral to our efforts,” Shyam notes – the goal of the charity is to use the resources available to reach as many people as possible. As women gain more strength in these communities, it becomes more and more clear, through simple observation, that they put their energy and their earnings back into their communities and their families. So while on the surface our mission is directed at individual women, communities at large are the true beneficiaries.

Categories : SKICharities, SKImfi, SKIpgo Tags : child development, early-stage scholarships, education, empower women, microfinance, philanthropy, SKI Charities, Zimbabwe

June 25, 2013 by SKIC | No Comments

On the Right Track: Early Stage Scholarships in Zimbabwe

Shyam readily – and fondly – recalls observing young girls in Zimbabwe skipping their way to school at 4:30 in the morning. It’s a memory he can recount in vivid detail – and one that certainly left an impression on him. “There’s nothing like the sunsets and sunrises in Africa. The soil is blood red, the trees are the darkest of greens, the stars are fading. It is unbelievably peaceful. On this particular morning, these five or six young girls, their hair done up and their uniforms beautifully starched, skipped by me, so eager to go to school. It was just a regular day, but they were so excited – even despite having miles to go.”

Inspired by this enthusiasm, Shyam started SKIpgo, a SKI Charities program focusing on early stage scholarships. He believes that early-stage learning is the most important part of someone’s education, because it’s where you can make the greatest impact.

SKIpgo participants range from three to five years of age and are taught good study habits, and even simple things like hygiene, self-respect, and respect for others. The schools that these girls are placed in “are not just about teaching them English or history or math. It’s about teaching them how to be strong, independent women. And if they grow up with that idea, if we engrain that in them from the very beginning, they grow to become the leaders of their community, to be civic-minded women, and to prioritize education. They’re like sponges at that early stage. They absorb everything.”

The SKIpgo scholarship is also a preventative measure. A lot of women in developing countries go down a different path, where education isn’t prioritized. Some women get pregnant very early, or don’t have the confidence to say ‘I’ll have a husband later. I can do that when I’m in my later teens or 20s. Let me get an education first, because that will strengthen my family and my future, and the future of the community.’ The scholarship incentivizes education, something that many Zimbabweans already place a lot of value on.

Scholarship recipients are chosen by the SKI Charities’ local team. Elizabeth, our project manager in Zimbabwe “talks to trusted people in the community to get references on girls ages 3-5 who are needy, from a financial point of view, but who come from families and environments where they will be given the opportunity to maximize their educational potential.” Our local team makes sure that participants are supported by their families and encouraged by their parents to study and work hard.

Usually, the pool of potential SKIpgo scholars is 2-3 dozen. Elizabeth whittles that down to a short list of ten, by interviewing them and ensuring that the candidates will have the potential to grow into their educations. Because SKI Charities can only control the financial part of it, it’s important that we make sure the girls are coming from a home that encourages early stage education, studying, and female empowerment. “The home environment is something we don’t have control over,” Shyam contends, “So we try to gauge that in the interview process.”

After selecting candidates (so far, four per year), we choose the schools they attend. “We vet every school in the community,” Shyam asserts. “Some schools are run as businesses and try to make as much money as they can. Others have a history, have strong teachers, strong facilities, and we want to direct our girls towards those schools. That way, there’s no reason for them not to succeed in their education.”

Every term, the girls are monitored on their performance. We talk to their teachers and their parents. Ideally, we would continue to support these girls every single year, but it’s just not feasible. The idea is to get them off on the right foot, and to ensure, to the best of our ability, that their families will continue to support their education. SKI Charities is there for financial support, but ultimately, it is the girls’ home life that will determine their success.

The hope is that these girls will begin to value their own education from an early age, and from there, continue to push themselves. It will require self-initiative to do that, as well as a positive familial infrastructure. But the first step, providing the opportunity for growth and success, is just the open door that these young girls need.

Categories : Company Organization, SKICharities, SKIpgo Tags : early-stage scholarships, SKI Charities, SKIpgo, Zimbabwe

June 18, 2013 by SKIC | 1 Comment

What’s in a Name?

SKIpgo

Little girls skipped along the side of a dust road as an African sunrise peeked above the horizon, never knowing that the lasting image they created inspired the name of a scholarship program.

It was 4:30 in the morning, and Shyam was driving with colleagues through the bush—rural areas—of Zimbabwe. They passed countless children who walked miles upon miles to reach their schoolhouses as dusk turned to dawn.

“That’s how much they love education in Zim,” Shyam says.

His team came across a particularly striking group of young girls, dressed in neatly pressed school uniforms with beautifully done hair. They smiled widely as they skipped across blood red soil among tall baobab trees.

“So many of us forget what a privilege school is, we take it for granted,” Shyam says. “But these girls still had miles to go and were so visibly happy… at 4:30 a.m.! They were so excited to get to school, just skipping and going. That’s where the SKIpgo name comes from.”

Witnessing this pure eagerness to learn again and again has connected Shyam to Zimbabwe—the name SKIpgo, which stands for Program for Girls Opportunity, reminds him of the value that these young scholarship recipients, and their families, place on their educational journey.

SKImfi

SKImfi, or the SKI Microfinance Institute, underlines the initiative’s role in catalysing opportunity for its beneficiaries to grab.

“Providing microfinance is great, but as the institute we can only get things started. We’re just skimming the surface,” Shyam says. “We began as a small microlending institution in a corner of the world, in a corner of Africa, in a corner of Zimbabwe. Now hundreds of families are involved, communities are stabilising, and this is the beginning. We are still at the surface.”

The value of what SKImfi alone adds to a community’s productivity doesn’t compare to the bottomless mine of potential that lays in the hands of all the women who receive microloans. As women become more empowered, the spillover effects of their business success will ripple deeply through their countries’ economies.

“We provide the necessary tools to give them a foundation,” Shyam says. “They then take the deep dive and create value for themselves and their communities to meet all of that potential.”

SKI Charities

In the beginning of 2010, SKI Charities was still an abstract idea. Shyam told his NGO friends that he wanted to take microfinance to, of all places, Zimbabwe. He was met with a common warning: “Zimbabwe is too risky; it’s not worth it. Go someplace with, as they say, lower hanging fruit.”

“I always struggled with that term,” Shyam says. “I think, ‘Well, some of us are a bit taller. Shouldn’t we reach for the high-hanging fruit? Can’t we add even more value that way?’”

He continued his early due diligence with peers in the policy and finance communities. He still met resistance. They did, however, express confidence in Shyam himself. They were more compelled to invest in his endeavors than in the country alone, which is why Shyam’s initials became so integrally tied to the charity.

“I decided, ‘Alright, if people don’t believe in potential of Zimbabwe, let them believe in me.’ I’ll put my name and reputation on the organization,” Shyam says. “Let us rise or fall together. We are strong and our beneficiaries have no one else but us; what are we waiting for?”

Categories : SKICharities, SKImfi, SKIpgo Tags : SKI Charities, SKImfi, SKIpgo

Archive for SKIpgo – Page 2

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